Confederate cavalry attacking the city was Parthenia Leila Ellis’s first thought when the sounds of battle awakened her the night the Rebels drove in the pickets at Fort Sanders.

The cavalry was commanded by Gen. Joseph Wheeler of Georgia who finally was captured in 1865 attempting to shield the fleeing President Jefferson Davis from pursuing Union soldiers. Wheeler became the highest-ranking Confederate prisoner at the Fort Delaware.

Wheeler also has the distinction (despite his Rebel service) of being buried in Arlington National Cemetery. It was due, in part, to his post-war election to the U.S. House of Representatives. But mainly to his volunteer service in the Spanish-American War, as a staff officer in the Rough Riders under President Theodore Roosevelt.